Hales, The Social Network

The best aspect of The Social Network was definitely Aaron Sorkin’s screen adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s book. I’ll admit that in the first scene I sighed from exhaustion and thought, ‘This film is going to wear me out.' But thankfully, what was annoying in the first scene (with Mark Zuckerburg and Erica Albright constantly bickering, bantering, and generally talking over each other,) proved to be charming and compelling throughout the remainder of the film. In the conference room during his two trials, Zuckerburg practically humiliates most everyone else in the room. However, the shining star of Sorkin’s biting dialogue is given to the president of Harvard when he is approached by the Winklevoss twins. He basically tears them a new one and sends them packing, yet in the most sophisticated and eloquent way imaginable. The only problem with such brilliant wit being doled out to most characters in the film is believability. Everyone knows that Harvard is an amazing school, but viewers cannot be expected to believe that everyone who ever came into contact with the university is blessed with such a caustic and almost Mensa-level manner of speaking.

In fact, there were many instances in which I couldn't help but wonder mid-scene, "Did that really happen?" Some of their behavior was just so bizarre, such as Sean Parker's complete disregard for humanity in general (speaking of, Justin Timberlake did a wonderful job portraying him, he went from charming to despicable in the span of two scenes.) But of course, this is a movie, and not meant to be an accurate historical representation of factual events. Yet I do hate when a film is set up in a way that I find myself straying from the film and thinking of real life instead. 

Eduardo Saverin was the most likeable character for me. He seemed to go about everything in an honorable way, and gave Zuckerburg the benefit of the doubt until absolutely proved other wise. When it was obvious that he had been screwed over, he went about protecting himself in the most mature and gentlemanly way. It was refreshing to see him lose his composure every now and then too. My favorite quote from the film is when Saverin gets fed up with Zuckerburg at a hearing and says, "Sorry, my Prada is at the cleaners, along with my hoodie and my 'fuck you' flip-flops, you pretentious douche bag!"

 Another interesting aspect of the film is the use of editing in the law suit scenes. It kept it exciting to have the instant change from one conference room to another. At first, when the viewer isn’t yet aware of what’s going on, one only wonders why Zuckerburg is wearing a different outfit when the scene cuts from the Winklevoss to the Saverin scenes. This is especially effective in keeping the momentum going in a two hour film. There were certainly a few things that could have been cut down, such as party scenes. But everything moved so quickly, I didn’t mind sitting around for 30 minutes over standard feature lendgth time.